The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Learning about the Tuskegee Syphilis study was an eye-opener and was hard to take in as an adult. I imagine teaching it to 16-year old students would be just as hard to do as it was to learn about it. This lesson will introduce students to one of the most infamous studies in public health and biomedical research—the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The Tuskegee Study is infamously known for its ethical violations. These violations became the force for major changes in the way in which human subject’s research is viewed and controlled in the United States.
In this lesson, students will be able to describe the facts surrounding the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. They will learn that the participants of the study were not treated respectfully. They were lied …show more content…
At the beginning of the study in the 1930’s, 399 men signed u with the U.S. Public Health Service for free medical care. The subjects were not informed about the research being conducted or the threats of the study. The service was conducting a study on the effects of syphilis on the human body. The men were never told they had syphilis. They were told they had "bad blood" and were denied access to treatment. Even for years after penicillin came into use in 1947. The patients were denied treatment even after finding that penicillin would cure the syphilis. They did this to monitor the progression of the disease at the fatal expense of the subject. Participants were not given the cure, even when it was widely known and available. By the time the study was exposed in 1972, 28 men had died of syphilis, 100 others were dead of related complications. This experiment was considered beneficial for human kind but did not consider the harm it was causing to the individuals and families used for research.
Finally, I will read aloud President Bill Clinton’s apology to the eight remaining survivors of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
"The United States government did something that was wrong—deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens... clearly racist." I will open the floor for discussion. Students will consider and discuss why this apology was important so many years after the experiment was over. Students will then use the information they have learned to make decisions about how the study should affect the way in which participants are enlisted for

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